August 16th: '7Days of Chocolate Reviews' - Edition 10

It has been another really hectic week on the site with a record number of people visiting - lets take a look at what we got up to:


The ChocolateMission Omnibus:

The week started off with my reviewing Willie Harcourt-Cooze's Delectable Cocoa Bars which you may remember from the series in which he starred on Channel 4. Personally I thought his bars were of a fair standard, but were by no means the best chocolate bars in the world such as he claims. Seemingly not many had actually tried Willie's bars with a lot of people mentioning the high price as the reason why. Those that had tried the chocolates, like CM reader Alun, had also come to similar conclusions than my own.

Later on in the week I got stuck into my first Schogetten bar, before trying my luck with Sarotti's Sao Thome dark chocolate. Both these chocolates split opinion so it will be interesting to see what the other bars from both these ranges offer.

On Friday I tried a rather odd product from Niederegger in the form of their 'Marzipan Potatoes'. Readers such as Alan and David thought similarly to myself in that the concept was completely out of left field, but thankfully Susanne was on hand to provide us with a quite reasonable explanation as to why these are quite the novelty in Germany - check out the review HERE to see why.


News from the Chocolate Market:

* This article was actually pointed out last week by Phil but it mysteriously disappeared before he could send the link. Susanne was on hand though to point me in the right direction on Monday to this press announcement .... Cadbury have launched a new product named KOKO - a truffle based Dairy Milk product aimed at the womans market. I have already managed to get hold of them myself so expect a review tomorrow. See HERE

* Nestle have recorded a first half rise of 4.3% USG (underlying sales growth ... in English SALES!) within the confectionery portfolio ... I wonder what will happen in Q3 with the introduction of Kit Kat Caramel Chunky? See HERE

* The FSA (Food Standards Agency) have issued a warning to foods manufactures about the level of saturated fat contained in our foods. See HERE

* I announced last week that Thorntons were moving their business abroad (again!) ... there is more on this move HERE


Posts from other Blogs I enjoyed this week:

* GiGi Reviews - Brought back many memories of Root Beer Floats at Disney theme parks that I used to have as a nipper with her review of Dryers/Edy's new ice cream. See HERE

* Japanese Snack Reviews - These Lotte Chocolate Coated Caramel Macadamias really caught my eye and got me back in the mood for tasting some more far east goods. See HERE

* CandyBlog - Should we really be encouraging children to put Lego blocks in their mouths? I'm not sure but Cybele thought these Chuao Chocolate Blocks from Legoland were damn tasty. See HERE

* Impulsive Buy - These review had me really intrigued!? Why on earth would Burger King be involved in making French Toast flavoured snacks!? By the looks of it they shouldn't have bothered. See HERE

* Unreserved Seating - This is a new site set up that tracks one mans travelling round various football grounds here in the UK ... hey who knows if his team performs a minor miracle and gets into Europe he could check out some stadiums abroad. Genuinely a great idea for a site and well worth checking out to see the wonderful views of our football grounds from a fans perspective. See HERE


### Jim's Corner & question of the week ###

Yes indeed a new small section for me to let some steam off my chest. It has been a great week for the site with a wave of new contributors regularly adding their thoughts to the reviews. This is something I always welcome as it is great to hear from the people that read ... whether you agree or don't feel free to leave me a comment by clicking the small little box under the score graph.

It has been a busy week for myself at work so apologies if I have been late replying to your comments. Unfortunately comment moderation will have to stay on for the minute as there is still a lingering nuisance attempting to contribute where not welcome.

I must give an additional thanks to Susie from Germany this week who was kind enough to send me some pictures of a German confectionery fixture (shelves!) from her local supermarket. It was really interesting to see the amount of variety they have out there, so much so I might do a comparison post with our UK shelves to show the huge difference ... that's if there is demand for that sort of thing!? Which leads me nicely to question of the week ...

'Would you like to see some special feature posts on this website? If so what sort of things would you like to see? I could do interviews with relevant industry people? Manufacture features e.g. small independent companies? Cross cultural confectionery market comparisons? The possibilities are endless ..... or simply I could just stick to reviews?

Right best round off this week - look out for my review of the Cadbury KOKO published Monday as well as some more reviews from the Schogetten range. Good luck to our lads playing the final Ashes test starting on the 20th! Fingers crossed it goes to day 5 as I have tickets!

Best Wishes and have great weeks!

Jim